Jay Rooney, a self-described communcations geek, is like any other consumer who wants the best deal. While he was thinking about switching from AT&T to T-Mobile, Rooney accidentally touched off a Twitter slap-fight for the ages when he tweeted this missive: "Just found out that @tmobile doesn't charge extra for overseas data. What the hell am I still doing with @ATT?"

T-Mobile took notice of Rooney's tweet and immediately went to work wooing him with a personal tweet, promoting itself as an alternative to old-school wireless carriers. However, AT&T wasn't going to stand idly by while one of its customers was sweet-talked over to a competitor, and the following exchange ensued.

@RamblingRooney Resist the urge, Jay. We heard its dark, scary and no one can ever hear you. No one.

Things weren't looking good for AT&T, but any fighting chance it had at retaining Rooney was soon dashed by the appearance of John Legere, T-Mobile's CEO, who in his thumbnail profile sported a modified T-Mobile logo made to look like Batman and swooped in with this message:

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The exchange had other Twitter users taking notice and promoting their favorite carriers to Rooney. All the majors got shout-outs, but it appears T-Mobile's basic equation of costing less combined with its CEO star power was enough to earn Rooney's cellular dollars.

This gives us an opportunity to dissect AT&T's reactions. Its original tweet to Rooney smacked of playground politics (though it was meant to be funny). T-Mobile's response appealed to Rooney's original concern over the cost of overseas data. Rooney even hinted to AT&T that a discount on his data rates might convince him to stay. But that particular tweet didn't get a response from the carrier.

If there is a lesson here about sweet-talking customers on Twitter, it's that it never hurts for your CEO to put in a personal appearance.

About the author

Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET's Crave blog. When not wallowing in weird gadgets and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto.
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